Nope. Dont believe that for a second. You are saying that everything, our entire lives and even the fate of the universe has already been decided and we are merely playing it out. Tell me, has there been alot of disappointment in your life? Does it feel like one failure after another? Are you perhaps looking for someone/something to blame this on? Aaah I know, lets blame predeterminism. Yeah, that'll do. Its not my fault, everything was predetermined to happen this way.

Well thats lovely. I just finish writing a delightful welcoming post to our newest member, then wander over to this topic and find him slagging me off! First of all your theory about my life is crap, I dont feel any more disappointed than the average person. Secondly you havent actually given any reason for not believing in predeterminism other than you dont want to.

aceofspades wrote:Well thats lovely. I just finish writing a delightful welcoming post to our newest member, then wander over to this topic and find him slagging me off! First of all your theory about my life is crap, I dont feel any more disappointed than the average person. Secondly you havent actually given any reason for not believing in predeterminism other than you dont want to.

Ace 1 - Advocate 0

Yes, but in a parallel universe he is telling you what a nice and intelligent person you are, and offering to take you for a meal.

Of course there was a beginning, not heard of the big bang theory? It's rather well known in scientific circles. The point at which space and matter expanded into the nothingness that existed (or rather didnt exist) before. The official beginning of the universe. Ring any bells?

Ummmm....I think the keyword you used there was "theory".It is an unprovable theory at that. If humans could actually recreate that theory into proof positive, well hell we wouldn't be around to know it was proven because the current universe would cease to exist. All in "theory" of course according to the currently accepted "rules" of physics and quantum mechanics...

aceofspades wrote:Theoretically it would be possible to 'predetermine all the way forward to the end' ie predict the future. But to do so would require a machine capable of modelling the entire universe precisely. Which is clearly impossible since such a machine would basically be containing the universe, and since said machine would be in the universe itself it would have to contain itself!

aceofspades is right though. If we could pinpoint the exact location of every piece of matter in our universe and we knew every force imposed on every bit of the matter and had the mathematical capability.... we could predict every single thing you could imagine in this universe, all the way down to human brain waves and thoughts. I don't believe that there are parallel universes either because of this argument. I believe that it is actually an amazing and genius idea. I wish I would have thought about it.But the fact of the matter is we will never be able to measure anything exactly, because existence is infinitely small as well as large. So we'll never predict the future because of microscopic chaos but there can now be no parallel universes. If there was there would be an infinite number of them. A universe in which I wrote this little rant in about 2 minutes 10 seconds, one in which I wrote it in 2:10.5 one where I wrote it in 2: 10.56 one in which I wrote it in 2: 10.568 another in 2: 10.5683 and so on for infinity. Infinity isn't just a large number, it's infinite. Between one second and another there would be an infinite number of universes created. Between one picosecond (0.0000000000001seconds) and another picosecond there would be an infinite number of universes. In the fraction of 1/100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 of a second there would be an infinite number of universes. There would be so many universes that it's not plausible.

If you believe in parallel universes here's something to consider. In our universe you would grow old and die, but in one of the infinite parallel universes the same exact life would happen except one of the hairs on your sideburns was blown by the wind a 1/0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 of a centimeter to the left. and another universe where it wasn't moved so much and another where it wasn't moved quite as far as the first and an infinite number of universes just to determine how far that hair on your side burn was swayed, and then another infinite many to decide the exact direction the hair was blown. But that would imply that the wind wasn't the same every time, which implied that something else wasn't the same every time, and you could trace it all back to the creation of the Universe. But if the Universe began a certain way it would 100% percent of the time continue on the same path (an object in motion stays in motion unless it's path is impeded). Our entire universe collectively is working a certain way, and there is nothing that can be done in the physical world to alter it and create a parallel universe. Because if you altered it.... it wouldn't be altered at all... Its what you did, there's no alteration.... you couldn't see something coming and change it.... because if you changed it you wouldn't really be changing it... you would be making it the way it was[i]supposed[i]to be.

The only way that everything I just said isn't true is if there is such thing not tangible in the physical world such as the human spirit or soul, but... good luck proving that. Although I do believe in it.